University of Southampton Students' Union
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| Established | 1903 |
|---|---|
| Institution | University of Southampton |
| President | Ben Rogers |
| Other Sabbatical Officers | Phil Webb - Vice President (Media and Communications)
Chris Whittaker - Vice President (Education and Representation) Toby Kushner - Vice President (Welfare and Societies) Issy Gross - AU President Dan Hemsley - Winchester President |
| Location | Building 42, University Road, Highfield, Southampton, Hampshire, England |
| Members | c. 20,000 |
| Affiliated to | Aldwych Group, National Postgraduate Committee, British Universities Sports Association |
| Homepage | www.susu.org |
The Southampton University Students' Union (SUSU), is the representative body of all the 20,000 students at the University of Southampton, England. It has a good reputation among other UK university student's unions for its facilities, services and organization and is part of the Aldywch Group of Students' Unions. It is situated on, and is the hub of, the main Highfield Campus and consists of three main buildings facing each other in a rough triangle close to the Hartley Library.
The first, dating back to the 1930s in a red brick style complements the Hartley Library opposite and contains a variety of offices for the union staff as well as a media resource centre for students' use. The building’s main use though is the ‘Stag’s Head’ – the union's main bar, and the adjoining ‘Garden Court’ (an old refectory now used as a gig venue for relatively well known bands).
The second building, which was built in the 1950s in the Basil Spence masterplan, is the main union building. The building was extended with new nightclub and cinema facilities in 2002 and now boasts some of the best facilities for a students’ union in the UK. The union nightclub is known as 'The Cube' and has a capacity of 1700 and consists of three bars, and a dance floor area. The venue hosts a variety of club-nights, the including ‘Kinki’ on a Friday night. 'Generator' on Thursday features live indie and alternative music and DJs. Famous bands, guest DJs, and celebrities appear intermittently throughout the year to provide further entertainment. The cinema has a capacity of nearly 400 and shows films nightly Sunday through Wednesday at £2.00 each, although showings are a few months later than the original release date. This building also contains the Bridge Bar, which is slightly more up-market venue than the Stag’s Head. Various events take place across these two venues including regular karaoke, live jazz and poker nights, all of which are either free or very cheap. On other levels there is the SUSU Café along with more union offices, squash courts and an indoor sports hall. There is also as the brand new studio for the University’s Radio Station, ‘Surge’ which broadcasts throughout the year on the 1287AM and the internet and annually on FM.
The third building which makes up ‘SUSU’ contains a convenience shop, hair dressers and student travel centre.
As well as offering many entertainment facilities and events the union also provides social and welfare services. There are over a 100 student societies and over sixty sports clubs funded by the union. Due to its location water-sports are a particular strong point. A host of welfare advice is provided free by SUAIC (Students' Union Advice and Information Centre).
In May 2002 (after several attempts going back several years), the union chose to disaffiliate itself from the NUS, whom SUSU believed to be 'political time-wasters', 'bureaucratic' and not providing value for the £86,000 / year affiliation fee. Other unions have since either followed suit or have started to question the value of the NUS.
The student newspaper is the Wessex Scene and comes out every three weeks.
The union, like most other student's unions in the UK, is run by a team of students: 6 paid full-time sabbatical officers and 6 part-time unpaid ‘executive’ students, all of whom are elected in a cross-campus ballot in either February or March of each year.
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[edit] Criticisms of the Union
A number of criticisms have been made of the Union in recent years:
- Despite being a democratic institution, few students actually take part in the democratic process. As such, the Union has been considered out-of-touch although southampton has one of the largest turnouts in elections and hardly ever talks about issue that do not directly affect students.
- The day-to-day operation of the union is managed by permanent, unelected employees, and the democratic structures of the union (such as union council) are banned from discussing any individual employee. Sabbatical officers, the only people capable of dismissing these employees, are trained by the very employees they oversee; this has been criticised as making dismissal near-impossible.
- Sabbatical officers, who notionally oversee the running of the union, are elected from the student body; few have experience managing a large commercial operation.
- Some consider communication between the Union and its members to be poor. Union officers point to the Union website and media outlets as an example of its communication, although it is unclear how many students look at it regularly.
[edit] Interesting Facts and Figures
- Wessex walk on water
- The union has an annual turnover of £6 million.
- In the 1970’s there was a live sex show in the union.
- The Union has over 300 Staff.
- In the early 80’s, on returning from a dinner in town the Hockey Club used paint they had stolen to paint a zebra crossing on the road so they could cross it.
- The Union gets an annual block grant from the university of £1.6 million
- Both John Denham and Alan Whitehead, both local Southampton MPs, were once Presidents of the Students’ Union.
- The Wessex Scene Used to feature Page 3 Students (Boys & Girls).
- The Engineers Ball was once famous for having topless waitresses.
- One of our porters was so convinced that the Union was haunted he refused to do certain patrols at night alone.
- The union has a dark room & a digital video editing suite.
- Dire Straits, Led Zeppelin,U2, Cream (band), Divine Comedy, Granddaddy, Terrorvision, Republica, Space, Paul Oakenfold, Judge Jules, Dave Pearce, Athlete, The Thrills, Feeder, The Bravery and Razorlight have all played at SUSU.
- The Cube used to be a debating chamber.
- The Union President gets to sit on the committee to choose the Vice-Chancellor.
- One of our university Challenge Teams poured a glass of water over the edge of the desk to see if it would drip on the team ‘below’ (they then got disqualified).
- We run English language courses for the partners of International students.
- The Union helps to fund over 75 clubs and 110 societies.
- The Students’ Union used to pay £70,000 to be part of the NUS.
- RAG once let the QE2 loose from its moorings as a stunt.
- Dominic Mohan (The Sun) , John Inverdale (BBC) , Paul Newman (The Independent), David Charter (The Times), Fiona Cowood (Bella) & Alex Doak (QP Magazine) used to work on the Wessex Scene.
- Jon Sopel, Union President 1981-82 is a BBC television political correspondent and presents the politics show.
[edit] Past Presidents
| Presidents | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Years of Office | Name | Notes | |
| 1923-1924 | S H Wiltshire | ||
| 1924-1925 | L J Russell | ||
| 1925-1926 | G A F Grindle | ||
| 1926-1927 | J A Smith | ||
| 1927-1928 | L A Poole | ||
| 1928-1929 | L H Shave | ||
| 1929-1930 | L Nichols | ||
| 1930-1931 | E Palmer | ||
| 1931-1932 | F Knibbs | ||
| 1932-1933 | S V Ward | Resigned | |
| 1932-1933 | F W K Brumby | Replaced S Ward | |
| 1933-1934 | D Miller | ||
| 1934-1935 | G Whitebread | ||
| 1935-1936 | J Goss | First edtion of "Wessex News" published | |
| 1936-1937 | A R Brown | ||
| 1937-1938 | P G Wickens | ||
| 1938-1939 | J Counsell | ||
| 1939-1940 | L M Moore | ||
| 1940-1941 | A G Derbyshire | ||
| 1941-1942 | A Smith | ||
| 1942-1943 | S Fletcher | ||
| 1943-1944 | B Warner | ||
| 1944-1945 | J A Attwood | Resigned | |
| 1944-1945 | F Stillwell | Replaced J Attwood | |
| 1945-1946 | J A Attwood | ||
| 1946-1947 | Alan (Chas) Dean | ||
| 1947-1948 | Jack F Archard | Resigned | |
| 1947-1948 | Ron Hewish | ||
| 1948-1949 | Michael Holland | ||
| 1949-1950 | Jeffrey W Wilkinson | ||
| 1950-1951 | Frank Bird | ||
| 1951-1952 | John Dascombe | ||
| 1952-1953 | R J Barry | ||
| 1953-1954 | Stuart S Bampton | First Disaffiliation from NUS | |
| 1954-1955 | Peter H May | Currently Senior Treasurer of the Students' Union | |
| 1955-1956 | Peter R G Hornsby | Affiliated to the NUS and first employed Staff | |
| 1956-1957 | Derek A Schofield | Secretary and Registrar, University of Southampton (1978 - 1992) | |
| 1957-1958 | J E Ffowkes Williams | ||
| 1958-1959 | Anthony J Gardner | ||
| 1959-1960 | H Denys Barron | ||
| 1960-1961 | R (Balch) Barden | ||
| 1961-1962 | R C Smith | ||
| 1962-1963 | J E MacFarlane | ||
| 1963-1964 | M J Durham | Boycotts led to the first student representatives on Univeristy committees | |
| 1964-1965 | W Stuart Humby | ||
| 1965-1966 | P E Moorman | ||
| 1966-1967 | J Royle | ||
| 1967-1968 | K I Kirby | University agrees to Union Presidents having a sabbatical year | |
| 1968-1969 | J R Alexander | University agrees to set up the first Student/Staff Liaison Committees | |
| 1969-1970 | David F Walker | ||
| 1970-1971 | Glyn Davies | ||
| 1971-1972 | Alan Whitehead | Labour MP Southampton Test (1997 - present) | |
| 1972-1973 | M Unwin | ||
| 1973-1974 | S Evett | Recalled | |
| 1973-1974 | G Strong | Replaced S Evett | |
| 1974-1975 | C Rushton | ||
| 1975-1976 | David Hughes | ||
| 1976-1977 | John Denham | Labour MP Southampton Itchen (1992 - present) | |
| 1977-1978 | David M P Page | ||
| 1978-1979 | Jon Craig | Journalist, Currently Chief Political Correspondent Sky News | |
| 1979-1980 | P K Emery | ||
| 1980-1981 | J K Dent | ||
| 1981-1982 | Jon Sopel | Journalist, currently presenting the "Politics Show" on BBC1 | |
| 1982-1983 | Stuart J Maister | CEO Broadview Communications | |
| 1983-1984 | S J Williams | ||
| 1984-1985 | David Taylor-Smith | CEO, Group 4 Securicor UK & Ireland | |
| 1985-1986 | Murziline Parchment | Policy Director, Major Projects and Service Delivery in the Mayor’s Office of the Greater London Authority | |
| 1986-1987 | Ian Geddes | ||
| 1987-1988 | Joceline K Tran | Local Government Officer, RSPCA | |
| 1988-1989 | Richard J P G Chavasse | Consultant Paediatrician | |
| 1989-1990 | E Grant | ||
| 1990-1991 | Steve Lathrope | Accenture Senior Executive, Labour MP candidate Beaconsfield (2001) | |
| 1991-1992 | A Wootton | ||
| 1992-1993 | Stephen Knight | ||
| 1993-1994 | Kevin Craig | Labour, Lambeth City Councilllor (Bishops) (1998 - present) | |
| 1994-1995 | Hannah Barton | ||
| 1995-1996 | Nigel Impey | Liberal Democrat, Southampton City Councillor (Bitterne Park) (2002 - 2005) | |
| 1996-1997 | Simon Coningsby | ||
| 1997-1998 | Matt Mowlen | ||
| 1998-1999 | Alex Bols | Secretary General, National Unions of Students in Europe (2001 - 2004) | |
| 1999-2000 | Graham Poole | ||
| 2000-2001 | Marie Heracleous | ||
| 2001-2002 | Stephen Edwards | Mongolian Rally Organiser | |
| 2002-2003 | Tim Rowlandson | PC Hampshire Constabulary | |
| 2003-2004 | Ben Hudson | ||
| 2004-2005 | Andy Wilson | ||
| 2005-2006 | Andy Wilson | ||
| 2006-2007 | Ben Rogers | ||
[edit] External links
- University of Southampton Students' Union website
- SURGE (student radio station’s website)
- Wessex Scene (student newspaper’s website)
